The lesson he teaches is that which vigor always
teaches,--that there is always room for it. To what heaps of cowardly
doubts is not that man's life an answer. When he appeared, it was the
belief of all military men that there could be nothing new in war; as
it is the belief of men to-day, that nothing new can be undertaken in
politics, or in church, or in letters, or in trade, or in farming, or
in our social manners and customs; and as it is, at all times, the
belief of society that the world is used up. But Bonaparte knew better
than society; and, moreover, knew that he knew better. I think all men
know better than they do; know that the institutions we so volubly
commend are go-carts and baubles; but they dare not trust their
presentiments. Bonaparte relied on his own sense, and did not care a
bean for other people's. The world treated his novelties just as it
treats everybody's novelties,--made infinite objection: mustered all
the impediments; but he snapped his finger at their objections. "What
creates great difficulty," he remarks, "in the profession of the land
commander, is the necessity of feeding so many men and animals.
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